As of this writing the PlayStation Network (PSN) has been offline for nearly a month. It was taken offline due to a massive security breach that was found to extend into Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) databases as well. The end result is that nearly 100 million detailed user accounts were absconded with by hackers.

Bad times for Sony. Much worse for their users who now have to worry about identity theft.

I have questions. So many questions...
So, how badly will this affect the Playstation 3? Is this the death kneel for Everquest (run by SOE)? Is DC Universe now more-or-less stillborn? How badly have developers who wrote for the PSN suffered due to this downtime? Will there be a migration away from the PS3 to Xbox360 and PC gaming? Will the threat of identity theft be sufficient to cool gamer to other digital distribution services, such as Steam? How long until the rash on my ass goes away? Will the popularity of single-player online DRM take a hit due to the extended downtime of PSN? Is the Playstation 4 now doomed? Ignoring the Playstation users, how will this event influence the normal personal computer gaming scene?

How may other crappers got their personal data pwnzorized due to this attack?

I guess I was fortunate... PSN never accepted my CC, so I've always had to use pre-purchased cards. The thing I used to curse about now makes me happy.

I suppose the real question is... who did the hack? It'll be bad times if it is your run-of-the-mill cyber-criminal. Not so much if it actually was Anonymous, as is rumored. Anon wouldn't want the extra heat that would come down on them if the CC/personal info was released. If that info is sold, then things could get quite ugly.

I suppose the real question is... who did the hack? It'll be bad times if it is your run-of-the-mill cyber-criminal. Not so much if it actually was Anonymous, as is rumored. Anon wouldn't want the extra heat that would come down on them if the CC/personal info was released. If that info is sold, then things could get quite ugly.

I don't think that's the real question. The real question is whether CC information was even exposed to begin with. Further, if it was obtained, can it be decrypted.

Ok, since this topic died and as a credit card holder and having given that information to Microsoft for the 360, I will talk about this generally.

And generally, the PS3 network being compromised does not bother too much. Sure, it sounds like they should have better security and I hope they figured things out. But who cares? Companies lose credit card information all the time. What happens if I start getting crazy charges? The bank will not only often call me and check up on me, but will also reverse anything I say was not me.

The biggest problem with the PSN going down was that you could not play many games for over a week...beyond that, business as normal.

"programmers talk from a very deep gnome cavern, full of gold mechanics" - wisdom from the ancients

We planted green beans, tomatoes (far too many), red and gree onions, spinach, egg plant (not sure if this one will make it up here), zuchini, cucumber, carrots, horse radish and a bunch of herbs. Took a lot of work for a 12x12 plot, more than I thought it would honestly. But we have a garden, it is fenced in with spiffy bird fencing (really more to keep ground animals out, but was a cheap option).

Not sure how the whole thing is going to hold up to the wind or if a deer actually decides to get fiesty, or worst of all, if my dog runs into it a good tilt (he is not the brightest). But, looking good right and was a lot of fun, and hard work, to get it all going.

"programmers talk from a very deep gnome cavern, full of gold mechanics" - wisdom from the ancients

Yeah, the federal government REALLY likes their drug war. So much that Obama laughs at the idea of changing it. So much that state approved places are raided by federal agents on a regular basis in any state that has medical mj.

It is not really a great idea to be registering at this point imo.

"programmers talk from a very deep gnome cavern, full of gold mechanics" - wisdom from the ancients

We're doing our garden this weekend, the weather has been crazy cold for this time of year and I didn't want the tomatoes to freeze. We usually stick to growing a bunch of stuff you can use to make salsa, then buy stuff like corn at the farmer's market.

My garden went nuts while I was away, the little tiny salad mix plants I planted have now reached the top of the greenhouse and gone to seed, and the rhubarb is taking up about half of the greenhouse, by volume. I haven't planted any tomatoes or cucumbers yet but I probably should.

"I hope you one day decide to smarten the fuck up so I can stand to look at your posts." - gaggle

Oh, gardening. We are trying to grow some veggies in pots on the deck this year. We have cucumbers, yellow peppers, jalepenos and something else, I forget what. My wife wrapped chicken wire around the veggie pots, save the peppers, to keep the critters away. I told her that they don't eat peppers so we wouldn't have to worry about that.

I am going to talk about L.A. Noire here. I won't spoil any of the story, but I may spoil gameplay if that's important to you.

I finished the game last night and would rate it 4* on the Netflix scale. That said, I can't recommend the game to anyone and you'll have to make your own judgement based on what you read about it.

The game can be broken down into 3 basic parts, cases, street crime and collecting. Cases are the meat of the game where the games story and main gameplay take place. Street crimes are small bits of action (not so) dispersed through the city that you can respond to while you're working on a case. Collecting is something to give you a reason to explore the city.

When you break down these components it's clear that as a game it's not very good. Lets start with the case work which is why everyone gets the game. You play as a detective in the post war 1940's LAPD. A case typically begins with a title card with a noire-ish sounding name ("The Golden Butterfly", "The White Shoe Slaying") and a short cutscene showing the crime being committed. You are then at the police precinct squad room where the Lt. gives you your orders. You get in a car and head out to the crime scene. While driving in an emergency vehicle you may get a call for street crime, but they're optional so you don't have to answer them. Similarly there's no time constraint on getting to your next objective so you can answer calls or putter around town.

When you finally get to the crime scene you investigate it for clues. This is one half of the investigative gameplay during a case. While searching for clues there is music playing to let you know that there are clues to be found and when you find a clue you will hear a chime and feel the controller buzz (there is an option to turn these off if you want to go hardcore). You press A and Cole will inspect the item. Occasionally youíll have to turn the item to find the clue on it (for example the serial number of a gun). The game will also include some junk items in this sequence, like a bottle lets say. Youíll feel the buzz pick it up and Cole will say something like ďthatís not relevant.Ē When you finish collecting clues that will usually yield a new location and/or a person of interest (POI) to talk to. Youíll schlep over there (or have you partner drive) to conduct an interview with that POI. Aside: whatís neat about this game is that after collecting clues or an interview and you are driving to the next location you and your partner will have some chit chat about the case. If you have your partner drive you still get the chit chat before the skipping. When you interview youíll select a pre-determined question out of your notebook to ask them and then you need to determine if theyíre telling the truth or lying. This is the second half of the case gameplay. If you think theyíre telling the truth then you select that and continue. If you think they lying or hiding something you can select Ďdoubtí if you canít prove their lying, or Ďlieí if you have the evidence to back up the claim. Itís a frustrating mechanic because it amounts to a guessing game. When you determine someone is not telling the whole truth it amounts to a stab in the dark some of the times if your evidence is what the developer thinks is evidence. Iíve had questions turn out wrong because my logic didnít mash up with the developers. However, the biggest downside of this gameplay is that none of it matters. Even if you guess wrong for all the interview a critical witness will still yield the necessary clue. It is impossible to not solve a case. You get rated on your efficiency, but in the grand scheme of the narrative your actions donít have any affect. The game is the puppet master and you can clearly see the strings pulling your arms.

Once in a while during a case there will be an action part. This may involve tailing a suspect, a shoot out or chasing a POI down to interview them. These are similar sequence that occur street crime but they are weak. One thing the game does is that if you fail an action sequence 3 times it will ask you to skip it. I used this feature twice because it is so poor. While itís a design failure to even have that option, Iím glad they recognized that it was weak and included a way to get around it.

Speaking of street crime, let me discuss that. If you answer a call youíll have to drive over to a location where a short movie will play setting up the scene. These are designed to be the action component of the game for those that demand action. A typical street crime case will end with a shoot out and people going to the morgue. An occasional item will have you chase a car and have to wipe it out to arrest the driver. Why bother doing these you ask? Well, if you like shooting people you can do that, but mostly because it yields XP, which brings me to the leveling mechanic. When you correctly guess at an interview or complete street crimes you gain XP. Once you level up the game will give you intuition points. These points can be spent at a crime scene to reveal all clues or during an interview to help you get a right answer. Occasionally a level up will yield a new outfit for you to wear (outfits will give you a bonus, but I never felt that). You can only have a max of 5 intuition points so thereís no benefit to leveling up if you have 5 of them in your pocket. One of my beefs with the street crime is that most of them are clustered near central, so when I was out in Hollywood Iíd have to hoof it all the way across the map to get the the crime. Even more egregious is that street crimes are based off of your assigned desk, so when the developers know youíll be working around Hollywood at the vice desk, they designed it so that you would need to go all the way back. For these cases I would stop the car and let my partner drive.

Collecting is just like you think, drive around getting stuff. You can Ďcollectí landmarks, film reels, newspapers and cars. Newspapers are typically found in the course of casework and play a cutscene to show more of the overall story. Getting landmarks and film reels will yield XP. Getting cars doesnít get you anything (other than achievements) so Iím not sure why they were included. Even more puzzling is that there are Ďhiddení cars throughout the map in special garages that you can use, but theyíre so remote to where you typically are that itís not something you would ever use during a case.

The game lets you go back and replay cases from the main menu so that you can try to get a better score, or once you complete a desk you can free roam in the city doing that desks street crimes or collecting. This being an adventure game at its core and not a sandbox game the value of the free roam is severely limited.

Why did I give the game 4* when it is barely a game and the game portions that are there are fairly mediocre at best? There are two reasons, the first is that I have been dying to play an investigative cop game for a while now. While I can see the wizard behind the curtain pulling the levers I can willfully ignore that and enjoy working a case because it feels like Iím investigating it. With no other game out there doing this I forgive it. Second, the story, of all things, is great for a video game. Itís probably even good enough to be adapted to a cable TV show. If you like noir stories and can get over failing the interview guessing game (even though it doesnít matter, itís still frustrating when you fail) then itís a game worth checking out. I donít even think that watching the youtube videos would be the same as experiencing it.

Bob: Those videos are awesome. Excellent find. My only gripe is that you linked to one of the more boring ones out there. I mean, why not link to this video instead? I guess you wanted the insanity to be a surprise?

Cheesy: I dunno man. From this review the CSI games sound a lot like Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain was an interesting experiment and while I hold a positive impression of it overall, it's not one that I would look to repeat. Of note is that Heavy Rain is also terribly overrated by the press, so I can only imagine how awful that CSI game would be.